UKD3: UK Dark Series Book 3

by Chris Harris

  All they could do was start tracking them on foot.

  Thankfully, the trail proved easy to follow. After a quick discussion, they concluded that the fleeing men probably weren’t expecting any pursuit, as they believed they’d stolen the only useable vehicle remaining to us. Encouraged by this thought, the rescuers picked up the pace, only exercising caution when approaching walls or hedges.

  Finally, they were rewarded by the sound of muffled shouts and screams in the distance. They picked up their speed even more, spurred on by the knowledge that they were close.

  The trail led to a barn standing in the middle of a field. After cautiously circling the building, they discovered that the only door into the building was closed. One of the soldiers crept forward, covered by everyone else, who held their weapons ready. It was locked or barred from the inside.

  The shouts from the men inside the building, and the screams and shouts of defiance from the three women, painted a clear picture of what the men were trying to do.

  There was barely any time to think. They had to find a way into the barn. The door looked sturdy so they rejected the idea of trying to barge through. The men inside could not be given an opportunity to do the women any more harm, or prepare to defend themselves. As far as they knew, all three were armed with shotguns or automatic weapons. They could not be allowed the time to use them.

  A frantic search revealed a loose corrugated sheet that had been used to repair a hole in one of the walls of the barn. Using a knife, the nails holding the sheet in place were quickly but quietly extracted and the sheet removed to reveal a hole large enough to crawl through.

  The scene inside, lit by a single propane lantern, was harrowing. The men had all three women pinned down, and were careless of how much they were hurting them.

  The women, scratched and bruised and their clothes torn, were furiously fighting to get away. Filled with rage, the rescuers launched their attack.

  Outnumbered and caught off guard, the would-be rapists didn’t stand a chance. Before long they were beaten unconscious and tied up on the floor.

  Harry paused in the telling of his story and looked a little uncomfortable, as if unsure about what to say next.

  I broke the silence, “What happened then?”

  Harry opened his mouth to say something, and then Michelle spoke up. Eyes shining with tears, but looking me straight in the eye, she said firmly, “I killed them!”

  The simple statement hung in the air for a moment, then she gathered herself and continued. “I made myself a promise that after what happened to us at St Agnes Road, no one would ever do that to me again.” She glanced at Kim at this point, “And I’ll do anything I can to stop it happening to anyone else. No one should have to go through that!”

  I closed my eyes, thinking about what might have happened to Becky.

  Wiping her eyes but lifting her head defiantly, she continued, “They were guilty. We saw them kill our people. I don’t think they planned to kidnap us; we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m sure if we’d been men on the barricade, they would have just killed us there and then. But they took us by surprise, and before we knew it we’d been beaten and thrown into the back of a truck. Then they bound our arms and legs to stop us escaping.”

  She looked at Becky and Kim and her voice hardened, “No one else was involved. Our men left them tied up on the ground. I waited until everyone was outside, and then before anyone could stop me, I picked up one of their rifles and shot each of them in the head.”

  Allan put his arm around her in support and she responded by gently touching his arm, before saying quietly, “I’d do it again in an instant. We can’t rely on anyone else to administer justice for us and I wouldn’t want someone else to do my dirty work for me.”

  The room was silent for a moment, and then Pete cleared his throat and spoke up.

  “Michelle, we’re all a hundred percent behind you and what you did. We’re just sad that you had to do it. Everyone fully supports Colonel Moore’s new constitution.”

  Becky spoke for the first time. “If you hadn’t done it, I would have,” she said firmly. “Those bastards were pure evil. They could have satisfied themselves with just stealing the vehicle and some supplies, and then disappearing, and that would have been the end of it. Instead, they murdered poor Dave and Private Mclean for their weapons, and abducted us because we happened to be there.”

  People nodded in agreement. At this moment, Paul Berry walked into the room and the mood lifted a little. He apologised for his late arrival, explaining that he’d been on the radio to the base at Hereford. He took in the situation at a glance.

  “Michelle, if you hadn’t done it then, there would have been a queue, trust me,” he said. “And while their motives may not seem logical to us, it’s proved that we can’t trust anyone until we know them well enough. Because of their actions, we’ve had to change the policy and procedures we were putting in place at the base. The fact that those three men were in such close proximity to senior government officials and royalty has scared the hell out of our security people.”

  He looked round at us all and added, “Sorry, have I interrupted?”

  I shook my head. “No, not at all. I think they’ve covered everything I needed to know. Michelle, I can guarantee that no one will ever think badly of you for what you did. In my opinion, you’re one of the bravest women I know. Those bastards deserved to die, and you did it without hesitation or any expectation of someone else doing it.

  Right, Paul,” I said, turning to him expectantly. “Now you’re here, you can tell me about the attack on the farm.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Paul looked round at us all for a moment, as if deciding what to say. “Not much to report, really. The mission was a complete success. The missiles did their job, and most of the ones who were left alive were too shocked and disorientated to put up much resistance. A few of them tried to fight back, but they didn’t last long against the kind of firepower we had.”

  “Did you find out where they came from?” I asked.

  He nodded coldly, “Yes. We kept a few of them alive for a short while so they could be questioned.”

  It was as he’d suspected. A lot of them had come from the military prison at Colchester. Not long after the event, most of the prisoners had been released, as the prison no longer had the resources to continue feeding and looking after them. But quite a few were deemed too dangerous to be let out and to their credit, the few remaining Military Provost staff had stayed on to guard them.

  At some point, a mistake had been made, and the prisoners had managed to escape and kill the guards. From that time, they’d embarked on a campaign of destruction and intimidation, killing and stealing from everyone they encountered. Their numbers had increased as “like-minded” degenerates were spared execution, (a fate handed out to most of the unfortunates they met) and opted to join them instead. Their plan was simple: they would move from group to group, attacking and destroying anyone who got in their way, and living off the captured supplies until they found somewhere suitable for a permanent base.

  “Did you get them all?” I asked.

  Paul nodded, “We believe so, yes. We counted over forty bodies and recovered a fair number of weapons and supplies from the building the missiles destroyed. No one could have got through the cordon we put up around the farmhouse. The threat they posed to the region has been permanently extinguished.”

  The conversation in the room descended into general chitchat for a while, until I recollected Paul’s comment about the change to policies and procedures at the Hereford base. As I asked about this the room hushed again, as people stopped to listen.

  “Well,” he said, “after the event, as you know, we were only allowing people we regarded as completely trustworthy on to the base to live among us. But after contact was made with you here and we discovered what fantastic progress you’d made, and realised that your achievements were putting the government’s efforts
to shame … well, the meetings you had with the hierarchy made an enormous difference. So then we began to adopt a more outward-looking and proactive approach.”

  I nodded, wondering where this was going.

  “As I said before,” he continued, “the fact that those three men were living among us for a time and had close contact and even conversations with some very important people … well, it’s made a lot of people very nervous and led to a reassessment of the situation …”

  He could see the agitation building up on my face and held up his hand, “Please, Tom, let me finish, and listen to everything I have to say before you start judging us.”

  I subsided for the moment and let him speak.

  “For security reasons, a temporary ban has been placed on allowing new arrivals into the base. This doesn’t mean we’re going to stop helping people; it just means that they won’t be allowed full access to all the facilities we can offer. Also, all arrivals since the event will be subject to further screening. We’re devising various new methods with whatever expertise and equipment we have available.”

  Noting the shocked looks on most of our faces, he added with a laugh, “No, it’s not what you think, we’re not going to be waterboarding people or anything like that! One thing we are trying to do is to get an old polygraph machine, (a lie detector, in other words) that we’ve found, calibrated and working again. We’re also putting together enhanced interview and background checking procedures. It’s become clear that the systems we have in place aren’t sufficient and need changing. It’s just unfortunate that it took such a disturbing event to highlight the fact.”

  He paused and looked round at us all before continuing, “After careful consideration, the outreach and relief programme we were planning will have to be scaled back for a time, as our priority for the moment is to concentrate on securing all the known locations of large quantities of stored weapons. We can’t risk any other groups like the one we’ve just put down finding them.

  As you can imagine, there are a lot of places we need to reach. It’s not just military bases we need to think about; the police also had a sizeable arsenal spread around the UK. In hindsight, this should have been done immediately after the event, but we just followed the protocol set out, and to our shame, allowed ourselves to be cocooned in our nice safe bunker …” He broke off for a moment, looking sombre, then carried on.

  “Still,” he said, slightly more cheerfully, “we can’t change the past, we can only influence the future. The one benefit from all this is that we’ll be embarking on missions much further out than we’d initially planned. Every mission will be given the same instructions: make contact and see what help we can offer to every group or individual we come across. We won’t be skulking around at night anymore; the patrols will make themselves as visible as possible and be on the lookout for survivors.”

  Once again, he paused and his smile disappeared. “But what I will say is, if you’re picturing our patrols arriving with flags waving and carnivals and bands, then you’re mistaken. It’s only two weeks since we were attacked on patrol, and we narrowly escaped being taken out by the group we’ve just eliminated. Basic security protocols will be followed at all times until we’re certain that whatever group we’ve encountered is peaceful.” He grinned wryly and added, “We may not initially look too friendly, but in my opinion, military vehicles were designed to look intimidating and there’s not much we can change about that.

  “Once the mission commander is satisfied of a group’s legitimacy, all the help and advice we have available will be offered to them. Initially we’ll offer food and medical assistance if required. We’ll also bring them up to speed on what’s happened to this country and the rest of the world, and then we’ll ask them if they want to be part of the plan the government is formulating to help rebuild the UK.

  I know we’ve been over this before with you all, but once contact has been made and we’ve ascertained that they agree with the country’s new constitution, we’ll continue our mission to secure the weapons. We’ll make a note of their location and we’ll promise to maintain contact with them, but other than that we won’t be able to offer any guarantees about when we’ll be able to return. Hopefully, knowing that they’re not on their own will make a big difference to them.”

  I thought about what he’d said. It made sense. None of us wanted to have to deal with any more gangs armed to the teeth, so a plan to secure weapons seemed sensible. A thought occurred to me. “So what would you do if you came across another group like us? One that was friendly but had military weapons. Would you take the weapons away from them?”

  To my relief, Paul shook his head firmly, “Absolutely not. That would be the quickest way to alienate them. We’d be taking away their only means of protection. Look, none of the procedures have been finalised yet, but I can assure you that if a group is friendly, no questions will be asked. But if, on the other hand, they prove to be hostile, then we’ll be taking their weapons, whether they like it or not.” Looking grim, he added, “Logic dictates that Gumin and those renegade soldiers can’t be the only rotten apples in the barrel, so I guess we’ll have to be prepared for more violence.”

  At this point, Jerry intervened and told everyone I’d done enough for today. The meeting broke up. I would have complained but was dismayed to find that I was feeling weak and exhausted again. I knew I was going to hate being the patient, but Jerry had already told me in no uncertain terms that I was incredibly lucky; firstly, to be alive and secondly, to have come through the experience without apparently suffering any permanent damage.

  He told me he was putting me on a week’s bed and house rest and that, aside from family members, I would only be allowed to have short meetings with everyone else. Becky put a stop to my protestations by promising severe future marital sanctions if I didn’t comply. The only course of action left was to give in. However, congratulating myself on my cunning, I resolved to become the most difficult, demanding patient ever, in the hope that they would become so exasperated with me, they would release me from my incarceration.

  It didn’t work.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  As the days dragged on, the weather was increasingly becoming an issue. It was colder than anyone could remember and snow storm after snow storm hit, adding layer upon layer to the snow already piled up in deep drifts against the windows. The world outside was silent; a freezing wilderness enveloped in a white blanket.

  The freezing conditions curtailed a lot of the outdoor work in the road, so most people were re-allocated to tasks involving internal house improvements, or were given duties that could take place within the shelter of the kitchen area.

  As we worked, we talked about the weather. Could it be a coincidence that the harshest winter on record by a long way was happening so soon after the world’s power had been turned off? No more gases from factories, cars and homes being pumped out into the atmosphere.

  Surely this meant the end of global warming? The theory bounced back and forth between us, and even though the experts back at the base argued against it, referring to the legendary “winter of 1947” as proof that a harsh winter can come out of nowhere, most of us weren’t convinced.

  Travel either by car or on foot was severely hampered by the continual falls of snow. For the sake of people’s safety, travel between the road and the base was suspended. An attempt to recover the stolen armoured car from its ditch had proved how dangerous conditions were, because the army engineers had almost managed to get the entire fleet stuck in the attempt (a fact which had been a source of great amusement to the rest of the troops).

  The houses in the road were full to bursting point, as the replacements who had arrived with the convoy were obliged to bunk up with the soldiers they were supposed to be replacing.

  Despite this, the troops remained cheerful, willingly pitching in to help the residents with their chores, and rarely complaining about their overcrowded accommodation. From their point of view, they knew that
their families were safe and warm back in Herefordshire, and in the meantime, they were glad to be doing something rather than kicking their heels at the base. From time to time they moaned and griped as any good squaddie would, but for the most part, they threw themselves into their work with gusto.

  Foraging parties were also cancelled and foot patrols were limited to the area immediately surrounding the compound. Even then, they kept to a set route so that any new tracks from strangers could easily be identified.

  So apart from guard duties and essential maintenance, we hunkered down and endured and kept ourselves as busy as possible.

  Not that this was much of a hardship; thanks to all the work we’d put in previously, fitting log burners, reinstating fireplaces and using gas heaters, the houses remained reasonably warm and cosy.

  The relationship between Harry and Kim was quietly blossoming. It had been clear from the start that there was a mutual attraction, but until the rescue, this hadn’t progressed beyond the occasional snatched conversation. Since their return, any reservations they might have had about his “royal” status seemed to have been forgotten. They were constantly together and the happiness that radiated from them was enough to lift the darkest mood on those bleak winter days.

  The only expeditions we embarked on were to check on the welfare of the groups closest to us. We were only too aware that they didn’t have the luxury of a large quantity of stored supplies to fall back on as we did, and we knew that they would be finding it just as difficult to navigate the snow-filled streets and roads.

  Their food levels would be running low by now, due to the difficulties of scavenging effectively.

  Teams of volunteers, heavily laden with rucksacks full of supplies, set out to see them, and returned exhausted many hours later, with stories of the appalling conditions out there and with messages of thanks from grateful communities. All the groups were given assurances that, as they’d agreed to follow the plan and been promised a place at the base, help would be made available to them until the plan could be put into action.